The present invention relates to a wear-resistant composite material finding application in hard facing a variety if components used in metallurgy and chemical industry, such as bells and valves of blast furnaces exposed to intensive abrasive wear in gases at normal and elevated temperatures or rolls of rolling mills, mixers, components of earth-moving equipment and heavy-duty vehicles which are subject to abrading, etc.
Used at present as materials which protect the surface of the components from wear are alloys, such as Sormite and Colmonoy. The alloys display a wear resistance which is higher than that of other known wear-resistant materials, yet they tend to develop numerous cracks and other flaws during the process of hard facing.
There is known, for example, a wear-resistant composite material made up of particulate refractory chemical compounds, namely cast tungsten carbides, and of a copper-based alloy matrix. This material has a wear resistance superior to that of other wear-resistant materials used in hard facing including those such as Sormite and Colmonoy. But this material includes tungsten which is expensive and in short supply.
Since the demand for wear-resistant composite materials for hard-facing applications is high, it can be met by providing a new material made up of ingredients which are both abundant and comparatively cheap. A lack of such material creates difficulties resulting from which are failures to assure the requisite service life of parts and protracted down periods due to the necessity of replacing or reclaiming the worn components.